[326] See No. XXXV., [note 217].
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[327] The term here used refers to a creature which partakes rather of the fabulous than of the real. The Kuang-yün says it is “a kind of lion;” but other authorities describe it as a horse. Its favourite food is tiger-flesh. Incense-burners are often made after the “lion” pattern and called by this name, the smoke of the incense issuing from the mouth of the animal, like our own gargoyles.
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[328] The Law of Inheritance, as it obtains in China, has been ably illustrated by Mr. Chal. Alabaster in Vols. V. and VI. of the China Review. This writer states that “there seems to be no absolutely fixed law in regard either of inheritance or testamentary dispositions of property, but certain general principles are recognised which the court will not allow to be disregarded without sufficient cause.” As a rule the sons, whether by wife or concubine, share equally, and in preference to daughters, even though there should be a written will in favour of the latter.
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[329] This has reference to the “seed-time and harvest.”
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[330] See No. I., [note 36].
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[331] Clouds being naturally connected in every Chinaman’s mind with these fabulous creatures, the origin of which has been traced by some to waterspouts. See No. LXXXI., [note 84].
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[332] “Boat-men” is the solution of the last two lines of the enigma.
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[333] The commentator actually supplies a list of the persons who signed a congratulatory petition to the Viceroy on the arrest and punishment of the criminals.
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[334] When the soul of the Emperor T‘ai Tsung of the T‘ang dynasty was in the infernal regions, it promised to send Yen-lo (the Chinese Yama or Pluto) a melon; and when His Majesty recovered from the trance into which he had been plunged, he gave orders that his promise was to be fulfilled. Just then a man, named Liu Ch‘üan, observed a priest with a hairpin belonging to his wife, and misconstruing the manner in which possession of it had been obtained, abused his wife so severely that she committed suicide. Liu Ch‘üan himself then determined to follow her example, and convey the melon to Yen-lo; for which act he was subsequently deified. See the Hsi-yu-chi, Section XI.
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[335] As the Chinese believe that their disembodied spirits proceed to a world organised on much the same model as the one they know, so do they think that there will be social distinctions of rank and emolument proportioned to the merits of each.
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